President of Czech Republic
speaks at UTC

The UTC campus proudly welcomed Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech
Republic and world renowned economist, who spoke to a small group of
faculty and business leaders recently. The Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise
invited Klaus, who was in Chattanooga to address the The Mont Pélerin
Society, which convened 200 of the world’s top classical liberal scholars
to analyze the prospects for Freedom, Entrepreneurship, and Prosperity
in the 21st Century.

Klaus discussed the fall of Communism and what he called the "velvet
transition" to a free market system. He said the transition has
been very smooth because Communism had grown soft twenty years earlier.

"No one is a true believer in Marxism. There are more true Marxists
at the University of California in Berkeley than in my country," Klaus
said as the audience laughed. "Textbooks describe a communist society,
but the reality is really, really different."

Klaus said his son had never seen a privately owned business within
one kilometer of their home until after he left for college. Now there
are no government run entities in that same area, and changes like these
throughout the country have been enormous.

"There is no way to describe it. We started to de-regulate the
markets the same day we liberalized free trade. We opened three and
four companies per hour! We opened ourselves innocently, and we created
many complications," Klaus
said.

On April 16, 2003 the Czech Republic became a member of the European
Union.

"As the President, I am responsible, and I will be blamed for it,"
Klaus said.

Since the Czech Republic is in the heart of Europe, Klaus said choosing
not to participate in the EU would be very difficult. He likened the
EU to joining a golf club; to join the club, you abide by the rules and
you do not bring your own conditions. Klaus says he would like fewer
countries in the EU, however the move is on to expand the number of countries
from 15 to 25 by May, 2004.

"The process of creating new rules is a heavy burden. Drafting
a constitution has huge implications; dual citizenship will be introduced. We
need economic convergence," Klaus said.